Related papers: Autonomous visual inspection of large-scale infras…
Vision-Language Navigation (VLN) enables agents to navigate in complex environments by following natural language instructions grounded in visual observations. Although most existing work has focused on ground-based robots or outdoor…
In this paper, we present a cooperative odometry scheme based on the detection of mobile markers in line with the idea of cooperative positioning for multiple robots [1]. To this end, we introduce a simple optimization scheme that realizes…
Digital documentation of large interiors of historical buildings is an exhausting task since most of the areas of interest are beyond typical human reach. We advocate the use of autonomous teams of multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles…
Multi-rotor aerial autonomous vehicles (MAVs) primarily rely on vision for navigation purposes. However, visual localization and odometry techniques suffer from poor performance in low or direct sunlight, a limited field of view, and…
The global positioning system (GPS) has become an indispensable navigation method for field operations with unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in marine environments. However, GPS may not always be available outdoors because it is vulnerable…
Reliable pipeline inspection is critical to safe energy transportation, but is constrained by long distances, complex terrain, and risks to human inspectors. Unmanned aerial vehicles provide a flexible sensing platform, yet reliable…
Full autonomy for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) requires the capability to autonomously detect potential landing sites in unknown and unstructured terrain, allowing for self-governed mission completion or handling of emergency…
In this paper, we explore the application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in maritime search and rescue (mSAR) missions, focusing on medium-sized fixed-wing drones and quadcopters. We address the challenges and limitations inherent in…
This research aims at developing path and motion planning algorithms for a tethered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to visually assist a teleoperated primary robot in unstructured or confined environments. The emerging state of the practice…
Advances in vehicular communication technologies are expected to facilitate cooperative driving. Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) are able to collaboratively plan and execute driving maneuvers by sharing their perceptual knowledge…
In this paper, we propose a cost-effective strategy for heterogeneous UAV swarm systems for cooperative aerial inspection. Unlike previous swarm inspection works, the proposed method does not rely on precise prior knowledge of the…
The periodic inspection of vessels is a fundamental task to ensure their integrity and avoid maritime accidents. Currently, these inspections represent a high cost for the ship owner, in addition to the danger that this kind of hostile…
Exploration of unknown space with an autonomous mobile robot is a well-studied problem. In this work we broaden the scope of exploration, moving beyond the pure geometric goal of uncovering as much free space as possible. We believe that…
Autonomous flight of micro air vehicles (MAVs) in unknown, cluttered environments remains challenging for time-critical missions due to conservative maneuvering strategies. This article presents an integrated planning and control framework…
Constructing large structures with robots is a challenging task with many potential applications that requires mobile manipulation capabilities. We present two systems for autonomous wall building that we developed for the Mohamed Bin Zayed…
Considering the accelerated development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) applications in both industrial and research scenarios, there is an increasing need for localizing these aerial systems in non-urban environments, using GNSS-Free,…
This work establishes COMPRA, a compact and reactive autonomy framework for fast deployment of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) in subterranean Search-and-Rescue (SAR) missions. A COMPRA-enabled MAV is able to autonomously explore previously…
Wind power is a clean and widely deployed alternative to reducing our dependence on fossil fuel power generation. Under this trend, more turbines will be installed in wind farms. However, the inspection of the turbines in an offshore wind…
Research on coastal regions traditionally involves methods like manual sampling, monitoring buoys, and remote sensing, but these methods face challenges in spatially and temporally diverse regions of interest. Autonomous surface vehicles…
Aerial Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN) aims to enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to interpret natural language instructions and navigate complex urban environments using onboard visual observation. This task holds promise for…